After a successful run in the J/30 class with his rocksteady team on Shamrock, Annapolitan skipper Bruce Irvin made the leap two years ago to a bigger, more ambitious and much more complex Corby 40 called Time Machine. A run at the Bermuda Race next year has always been the goal, so the past two years have been all about learning and refining the boat to its full potential. Progress is now obvious for Irvin and his crew, which won today’s ORC distance race at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta in Annapolis.
Winds were moderate from the south, the current was ebbing most of the day, and the sun was shining again—all in all a perfect day for the nearly 240 regatta competitors that have been racking up races over the past two days.
“It felt really good today to see all the hard work that’s been done to the boat over the winter paying off,” Irvin says. “We have a completely new rig tune and new sails and the crew has been working hard so we’re thrilled to have a good race today.”
With a clean start in the 10-boat ORC fleet, Time Machine’s plan was to favor the west side of the bay on the long first upwind leg, a strategy that proved to be the right one.
“The current was coming at us, so we decided that we wanted to kind of favor the right-hand side of the beat going up,” Irvin says. “But we ended up going kind of in the middle of the racecourse and carried one big 30-degree lift on starboard all the way toward Thomas Point Light.”
Then, things got tricky.
“The wind got really shifty at the mouth of the West River,” Irvin says, “so we just did our best to play those shifts. Once we got to the mark and put the A2 up it was all downhill sailing from there.”
James Sagerholm’s legendary J/35 Aunt Jean executed a similar strategy from the start, promptly tacking after crossing the line and beelining to the right, which ultimately set them up for a second on the day and put them only a point behind Time Machine going into Sunday’s second distance race.
While the distance racers and Cal 25s (won by Pat Siedel’s Chicken Little) were covering roughly 20 miles of the Chesapeake Bay, the remaining fleets got right to business on five race circles, with the addition of the Harbor 20 fleet kicking off its Spring Championship. As the local fleet continues to grow and attract top sailors, the racing is more competitive than ever, says current class leader Margaret Podlich, whose team leads the series after five races. Podlich says her teammates on Skimmer—Gina Henderson and Sandy Westphal—were the ones keeping the boat fast and out of the fray.
“The fleet is getting way more competitive every year,” Podlich says, “and the last race today was a perfect example of it—there was a pile of boats all overlapped at the finish.”
“Off the start, the fleet split to both sides,” Henderson says, “and the top 10 came together at the weather mark all at once. It was really close racing all day.”
While Podlich normally sails with two onboard the Harbor 20, with the wind forecast for the weekend they decided to go three-up, and with this go-fast combination they had the boat going plenty fast. “The key was changing modes constantly,” Henderson says. “We were always adjusting modes, with the goal of using the power in the gusts rather than dumping it.”
Sharing the racecourse with the Harbor 20s were the J/24s, which got their series underway today as well. Pete Kassal’s Spaceman Spiff won two of five races to finish the day with a 3-point lead over Pat Fitzgerald’s Rush Hour.
Out on the jam-packed Division 3 circle, with the J/88s, J/80s, J/70s and J/105s—the intensity of the respective fleets certainly went up a notch in the moderate winds and busy racecourse. No one got away easy; every point being a battle, says Andy Graff on the J/88 Exile. His team’s 1-2-1 scoreline came with its challenges.
“We had a good day—we were going pretty good, felt fast and made some good calls—but it’s all pretty close and the next two boats are just barely behind us.”
Indeed, John Bell’s Hiwassee is only 3 points back and Lindsay Duda’s Sin Duda won a race to keep themselves well within striking distance of the lead.
Exile and the J/88s have the fortune of being the first start on the circle, which gives them an open course on the first beat, but a different strategy was required for the second. “The second beat is a bit harder to cross back through the middle,” Graff says, “so when we picked a side on the second beat we really had to stick with it. Choices are definitely more limited on the second.”
Cate Terhune Miller’s Casting Couch kept its consistency alive with three top-five finishes and now sits on a 4-point lead over Paul Green’s Progress, which won two races to keep the series plenty tight. The two teams have built a comfortable margin over the rest of the fleet with the potential for two more races on Sunday ahead of an approaching cold front.
In the J/80s, Mike Beasley’s Black Sheep found itself at the back of the fleet in the morning’s first race, posting an 18th before winning the next and finishing the day with a second in the last race. Only 5 points now separate Black Sheep and Warren Flannery’s team on Feisty, which won the final race. Sarah Alexander’s More Cowbell, however, is third overall, only 1 point in arrears, which should make for an exciting final day for the J/80 sailors.
Ben duPont’s Warbride maintains its lead in the 22-boat J/105 fleet, but only by 4 points over Ray Wulff’s Patriot. Wulff’s squad won the day’s first race and followed that with a second in the next, but a 14th in the final kept them from snatching Warbride’s lead. Like the J/80s, this series will no doubt come to the final race on Sunday.
On the regatta’s Division 1 racecourse, skipper David Starck padded his lead in the Lightning fleet to 8 points with two race wins and a second. Barney Harris’ winning streak was finally snapped by Paul Clifford, but Harris’ remains at 20 points, putting Albacore US National Championship title firmly in hand before the final day of racing.
Annie Sitzman and Molly Bonham won all four of their races as well in the 29er fleet and look to be unbeatable from here. Sara Morgan Watters and Katherine Shermock won two races and with a pair of seconds in the Melges 15 fleet and put their lead to 8 points over Tim and Kate Faranetta, now solidly in second.
Lanny Helms’ Alberg 30 Windswept and Barbara Vosbury’s Carnival Lady continued to trade race wins to bring that series to 2 points. Dan Watson’s Avita, meanwhile, had a challenging day defending its lead in the small but competitive J/30 fleet. Three different boats won races today, shaving Watson’s lead to a single point.
“We’re looking forward to tomorrow for sure,” Watson says, knowing his rivals on the Valhalla Sailing Project are only a point behind in the standings. “But we’ll have to go one race at a time. It’s like any sport—it’s a mental game and you have to just focus on doing well.”
Jimmy Praley’s Robot Flamingo added two more wins to its scoreline to build an impressive 19-point lead. Michael Baugh’s Persephone put three wins on the board and now leads the J/29 fleet by 9 points, and Jeff Hayden’s team on the J/22 Polar Express have 4 points on Brad Julian’s Yard Sail.
Hawaiian foiling ace Gavin Ball solidified his lead in the Waszp fleet’s US National Championship series with a string of top-two finishes and now sits 8-points ahead of fellow islander Pearl Lattanzi.
